The recent explosive fallout between President Trump and his former Chief Strategist, Breitbart CEO Stephen Bannon could lead policy down many different vectors. However, in one area it is critical that President Trump embrace a position similar to that of Mr. Bannon and that is on the imperative of confronting China and doing so now rather than waiting.

To his great credit, President Trump has attempted to close the door to a past era that was opened in 1972 when President Richard Nixon famously went to China. While countless efforts have been made over the intervening decades to facilitate China’s ability to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War and then, after the Soviet Union’s fall, to become a “responsible stakeholder” in the global system, this has clearly not turned out as China optimists had hoped. Even President Nixon, if not his consigliere Henry Kissinger, questioned our policy towards China prior to his passing in 1994 and wondered if China might not be our Frankenstein.

China is clearly not embracing the liberal internationalist values so near and dear to the fans of globalization. Rather, China is using the opportunities afforded it by globalization to build itself up and to rise once more. It has done so by cheating in foreign trade deals, stealing billions of American companies’ intellectual property rights, monomaniacally focusing on building a top tier military, and perfecting what might turn out to be the world’s most sophisticated police state.

Why all of this? As the Chinese aphorism says, “When two emperors appear simultaneously, one must be destroyed.” This represents something like the rejuvenation of the old concept of “tianxi” which sees China as the central political entity in Asia with other nations seen as “civilized” to the degree they functionally act as tributaries. It has clearly made a comeback in China, though it questionable if it ever really left (see Howard French’s excellent Everything Under the Heavens).

Dealing with this multifaceted challenge is the geopolitical story of the 21st Century. Whether it is Graham Allison’s Thucydides Trap or Michael Pillsbury’s 100 Year Marathon or Aaron Friedberg’s Contest for Supremacy, leading policymakers and scholars have been slowly coming around to this view. It is now time that American leaders at all levels of government, and outside of only the Pentagon, should stop harboring illusions that a grand competition against China is avoidable. The real question is how that competition will look and develop over the years and decades ahead.

Stephen Bannon has echoed many of these points in recent years and, especially, in recent months. He is right to do so. Unfortunately, there is a real risk that the recent contretemps over a new book may distract as well reinforce status quo policy.

This is a time for deep thinking about American power and American strategy to come to grips with a China that is a far different, more complex, and ultimately likely more powerful competitor than the Soviet Union. This author has argued for a grand strategy focusing on China called the “Iron Quadrilateral” that focuses on:

• Tilting back to Russia rather than facilitating the consolidation of a Sino-Russian axis is Eurasia;
• Greatly reducing our presence in the Middle East and embracing a “Richelieu” like strategy for the region;
• Reinforcing our alliance with Japan
• Fully embracing India’s rise.

Thus far, again to the President’s great credit, the U.S. is moving forward on the second two elements of this strategy. However, due to political rancor over Russia and the 2016 Election and an inability to quit engaging deeply in the Sands of Mesopotamia, the first two are not being embraced. This risks distraction at a key moment in our burgeoning geopolitical contest with China.

Exacerbating that risk is the controversy over the soon to be published “tell all” book seems to have driven a wedge between Trump and Bannon, perhaps even a fatal one. The media and Washington D.C. insiders are breathlessly wondering what this means for Trump’s relationship with his base. In the absence of Bannon’s influence, will Trump embrace the more status quo positions of many in his New York orbit, or will he still tilt to the base that elected him? There is no doubt that these are interesting parlor games, but they should not lead to a loss of focus on the most critical geopolitical issue of our time.

The United States is at an inflection point. President Trump has done more to move policy in the right direction on China than any President since the opening. However, getting China policy right transcends any single President or advisor. Despite the right initial steps, there are now real risks that further needed policies will become stymied and sink into the D.C. swamp. For America’s future, that must not happen.

*Greg R. Lawson is a contributing analyst at the web-based geopolitical consultancy,Wikistrat. These views are his own.

The 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting closed Friday on a creative note with four artists sharing their visions of how painting, photography, film and dance can inspire empathy with other people’s stories. Across more than 400 sessions, one key theme kept emerging: the need to embrace our common humanity in the face of the rapid technological changes ushered in by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Wrapping up the final session, Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation and one of the seven female Co-Chairs of the meeting, celebrated the spirit of inclusion, diversity and respect for human rights that characterized this year’s meeting. She paid tribute to the meeting’s artists, whose work put people at the centre of the story and concluded with a call to action: “Let’s ensure that Davos 2018 is just the beginning of a movement where we globalize compassion and ensure a world in which no one is left behind.”

The 48th Annual Meeting was convened under the theme, Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World with the aim of identifying ways for humanity to work collectively once more in the face of urgent global and regional challenges.

Mending our fractured world

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, announced that Canada will double its commitment to the Global Partnership for Education Fund, providing an extra $180 million to the fund between 2018 and 2020.

Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece, and Zoran Zaev, Prime Minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, held the first meeting at prime-minister level for seven years. The discussion led to a framework being agreed to intensify the negotiations on an end to the naming dispute, which is being presided over by the UN.

In addition to the West Balkans, the Forum’s series of Diplomacy Dialogues has committed to supplementing ongoing multilateral efforts in the Korean Peninsula, Venezuela, sub-Saharan Africa and Somalia.

Looking to the Middle East and North Africa region, a Forum community of Israeli and Palestinian business leaders met at the Annual Meeting to renew their commitment to the two-state solution and pledge their support to strengthening the Palestinian economy given the opportunity of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In the same region, the Forum also formed a new community of businesspeople who have committed to advise and support Haider Al Abadi, Prime Minister of Iraq, on the reconstruction of the country.

Denmark became the first European country to partner with the World Economic Forum. The scope of the agreement will see Denmark collaborate closely with the Forum in a number of areas, including promoting green growth, trade and education, gender and work. Denmark will also partner with the Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco as it works to design governance principles to shape the technologies of the future.

The Government of Saudi Arabia signed a Letter of Intent to partner with the World Economic Forum. The scope of the agreement covers the Forum’s System Initiatives, the Global Centre for Cybersecurity and the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Systems leadership

Preparing workers for the future: A Forum report published during the meeting, Towards a Reskilling Revolution, provides the guidance needed to find new, gainful employment for the millions of workers expected to lose their jobs due to technological change. Separately, the Forum announced two initiatives that will have a direct impact on workers: Closing the Skills Gap, a global, business-led scheme that aims to deliver new skills to 10 million workers by 2020; and the IT Industry Skills Initiative, whose SkillSET portal aims to reach 1 million IT workers by 2021.

Safeguarding our oceans: A new multistakeholder initiative, the Friends of Ocean Action initiative, was launched with the aim of delivering an “Ocean Action Track” to protect and conserve oceans, seas and marine resources. The partnership was announced by Isabella Lövin, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden; and Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Ocean. Marc Benioff, Founder and Chairman of Salesforce.com, announced $4.5 million in funding through the Benioff Ocean Initiative to support the new initiative.

Closing the Gender Gap: Peru became the fourth country in Latin America to adopt the Forum’s Closing the Gender Gap model, following earlier adoption in Chile, Argentina and Panama. Five additional countries are considering adoption over the course of 2018.

Tackling waste and pollution: Leaders from some of the world’s largest companies, such as Alphabet, The Coca Cola Company, Royal Philips and Unilever, teamed up with the governments of Indonesia, Nigeria, the People’s Republic of China and Rwanda and international organizations to form the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE). The platform aims to tackle issues including electronic waste and plastics pollution by going beyond the 9% of waste that is currently cycled back into the economy after use.

Unlocking nature’s value: A new plan was announced to mimic the success of the human genome map by sequencing the DNA of all life on earth. Under the auspices of the Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth initiative, two projects, the Earth Bio-Genome Project (EBP) and the Earth Bank of Codes will, if successful, help avert extinction as well as tackle bio-piracy and habitat loss by unlocking value from nature’s biological and biomimetic assets.

Making meat sustainable: A new Forum initiative, Meat: The Future will identify ways to transform the future of meat and protein production to deliver safe, affordable and sustainable protein in the face of rapidly growing global demand.

Bridging the digital divide: Mercedes Aráoz, Prime Minister of Peru, announced plans to launch an Internet for All programme in 2018.

Fighting financial crime and modern slavery: Thomson Reuters, Europol and the Forum are partnering to tackle money laundering and trafficking in human misery. The partnership will aim to raise greater awareness among global leaders, promote more effective information-sharing and improve compliance best practices.

Taking on fake news: A new joint venture funded by the Craig Newmark Foundation in collaboration with the World Economic Forum was launched. Bringing internet platform giants together with multistakeholder leaders, the initiative will be developed further through 2018. Meanwhile, a joint venture launched by Internews in collaboration with the Forum aimed to promote high-quality local news and information.

Secure air travel: The Forum was joined by the Government of Canada in launching a Known Traveller Digital Identity prototype to test emerging technologies such as biometrics and distributed ledger technologies that could facilitate more secure and seamless air travel.

Advancing the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Governing the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which opened in March 2017, expanded with a number of new partnerships. New centres will be added to the network in India, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, Bahrain, Denmark, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Kingdom joined as partners alongside Deutsche Bank, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.

Tackling the cyber threat: In response to the fastest-emerging global risk of our times, the Forum announced the launch of a Global Centre for Cybersecurity, a multistakeholder platform aimed at creating a safe operating environment for new technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles and the internet of things.

Accelerating innovation: The Forum launched its UpLink initiative as a platform to connect start-ups with multinational businesses, investors, universities, governments and other investors. To kick-off the platform, a collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) will see 50 outstanding start-ups from Latin America invited to participate at the World Economic Forum on Latin America in Brazil in March.

Rwanda: The Government of Rwanda became the first country to adopt performance-based regulation for all drones following a collaboration with the Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The new approach is aimed at simplifying procedures to encourage faster adoption of drone technology and greater deployment of drones for innovative uses.

Ethical science: The Forum’s community of Young Scientists launched an interdisciplinary Code of Ethics for Researchers aimed at safeguarding high standards of behaviour and clarifying social norms to allow scientists to operate independently.

On the Forum’s platform for Public-Private Cooperation

Empowering women entrepreneurs: The Mann Deshi Foundation, a rural Indian cooperative bank run by and for women established by the meeting’s Co-Chair Chetna Sinha, announced the launch of a Rs100 million fund to encourage more women at the bottom of the pyramid to become entrepreneurs.

Addressing up to gender bias: The Forum’s Global Shapers Community teamed with Procter & Gamble to raise awareness among young people about gender equality. The partnership will include a social media campaign and a $100,000 grant challenge to support grassroots, youth-led solutions.

Developing antibiotics: Netherlands-based Access to Medicine Foundation published the world’s first antimicrobial infection benchmark, which encourages greater research and development for new-generation antibiotics.

Football fund: Common Goal, co-founded by footballer Juan Mata, was launched as a programme aiming to break the cycle of poverty for 2.5 million people around the world. The plan has so far signed up 35 footballers to pledge 1% of their salaries to charities that use football as a tool for social change.

Valuing waste: Chile became only the second country in the world to implement a national plan to move to a circular economy. The scheme is the result of a partnership between TriCiclos and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Relief and reconstruction: The International Trade Union Confederation teamed with US renewable energy firms Sesame Solar, SimpliPhi Power and Outback Power to deliver off-grid power to affiliates in Dominica along with emergency supplies and aid.

Mental health: CitiesRise, an initiative aimed at improving provision for affordable mental health support for young people, was launched with the support of public- and private-sector leaders in Kenya, Lebanon, Colombia, the United States and India, and supported by Philips, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and Harvard University. CitiesRise aims to reach 1 billion young people by 2030.

Community health: The CEOs of Last Mile Health Living Goods announced a $50 million collaboration to deploy 50,000 community health workers to deliver quality care door-to-door to 35 million people. Working with African governments, the initiative will use mobile technology to empower community health workers more cost-effectively than deploying doctors or nurses.

Culture: At the invitation of Swiss President Alain Berset, Europe’s ministers of culture gathered in Davos on 21 and 22 January. They discussed ways in which Baukultur for a better quality of life can be anchored in Europe, both politically and strategically.

Sustainability: The World Economic Forum has obtained independent recognition for sustainable event management of the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters and has received the ISO 20121 certification, following audits by DNVGL. PublicisLive, the Forum’s official provider of logistics and key support services, has received the same certification. The ISO 20121 standard enables event organizers to implement concrete sustainability actions in a rigorous way.

More than 3,000 participants from nearly 110 countries participated in over 400 sessions at the Annual Meeting. This year more than 340 public figures, including more than 70 heads of state and government and 45 heads of international organizations took part, a new record;

Turkey is not “occupying” Syria’s Afrin with its ongoing Operation Olive Branch, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Addressing the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s provincial heads meeting in capital Ankara, Erdogan said, “We are not occupying Afrin. On the contrary, we are trying to make it a liveable place for the real owners while clearing out terrorists from there.”

Turkey on Saturday launched Operation Olive Branch to clear PYD/PKK and ISIS forces from Afrin, northwestern Syria.

Erdogan said the operation was a “clear warning” to those who did not want to understand Turkey’s determination in the fight against terrorism.

He reiterated the ongoing operation was directed “purely and simply” against terrorists.

He added Turkey will clear terrorists from Syria’s Manbij next.

Original source

In falsely bragging about the alleged benefits to the middle class from the tax law enacted by the Republicans last month, the Trumpsters neglected to give high visibility to the state regulators who must require utility and insurance companies to pass savings from the tax cuts on to their consumers.

While some regulated utility companies (gas, electric and telephone) did announce that they would be reducing rates for consumers, others seem to be waiting for state regulators to push them. The insurance companies in particular seem to be in need of a nudge.

The indefatigable actuary and consumer advocate for the Consumer Federation of America, J. Robert Hunter is pleased to provide the necessary push. In his usual tightly argued style, he has sent letters to every state insurance commissioner, as well as those officials representing the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Hunter calculates that insurance rates that you, the consumer, are paying, should be reduced by about 5%, “without including the impact of investment income due to lower taxes on that income. So it could be more than 5%.”

Hunter continues: “On a property-casualty industry wide basis, the windfall to insurers from the tax changes are massive. 5% of the $ 539 billion in premiums collected is over $25 billion. For longer-tailed lines, like medical professional liability, the increase in investment income on reserves and surplus will be much greater than average because of the reduction in tax rates.”

Taking no chances, Hunter asks the mostly passive state insurance regulators two questions that resolve any possible ambiguities about what you the policyholder-consumers are owed:

1. “What is your evaluation of the recent changes in tax laws on insurer profitability by line and what is the basis for your conclusions? “
2. “What actions are you taking in the next month to cause insurers to reduce rates to reflect the windfall from tax changes and to ensure rates return to not excessive levels?”

Over $25 billion in savings coming back to consumers’ proverbial pocketbooks is not chump change. You can surely use it, and it belongs to you under existing law.

If you call or email your state insurance commissioner and ask “where’s my money?”, you’ll get a pretty good idea of how fast and decisive your commissioner is likely to be. California’s elected Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has already acted to assure these reductions in rates.

Further questions may be directed to Mr. Hunter’s organization here. He’ll want to hear about any responses, or lack of responses, from your commissioner’s office. These commissioners, and every insurance company, know Bob Hunter very well. This consumer champion has been a leading consumer watchdog for over forty years. He has saved consumers billions of dollars in auto, homeowner and other property-casualty policies with his testimony before legislatures, especially defending the civil justice system from erosion, his expert witness role in successful litigation, and his many public reports revealing insurance industry abuses.

In the pantheon of ‘one person making a difference,’ J. Robert Hunter deserves top billing. He exposes the intricacies of this often needlessly complex business and the maneuvers that the companies use, to evade, avoid and obscure their shenanigans. Bob has also successfully challenged insurance industry legislative proposals, greased by campaign contributions.

In 1988 during our regulatory victory over the resistant property-casualty insurance industry, with the enactment of Prop 103 by California voters, we received regular pro-bono advice from Bob Hunter. Since then, California has moved from being one of the highest auto insurance priced states to one of the lowest ones. Actuary Hunter estimates savings to California Motorists of over $100 billion.

He’s done all this work with a marvelous sense of humor, a pleasant personality in acrimonious venues, and he manages, as a vocation, to be a peace mediator of African tribal conflicts.

At the Davos World Economic Forum, President Trump urged global investors to invest in the United States. “I’m going to Davos. We’re going to be talking about investing in the United States again,” said the president.

That would be good for Americans. More investment increases productivity, which boosts our standard of living. But where will those global investors get the dollars to invest here? Foreign investors earn dollars which they can then invest in the United States by selling goods to Americans for dollars. The more goods foreigners sell to us, the more dollars they acquire which can then be invested in the American economy.

So, while President Trump is telling global investors to invest here, his policies that aim to limit imports into the US (such as the recent tariffs he announced on Korean washing machines and solar panels) will reduce foreign imports into the United States, and so reduce the dollars global investors have to make those investments.

His words say, invest in America. His actions say otherwise.

This article was published at The Beacon.

President Trump has suspended about a quarter billion dollars in military aid to Pakistan. That move is the right one, but an examination of the wider failed U.S. policy toward the Afghanistan-Pakistan region is warranted and how that unending fiasco has evolved.

In late 2001, in response to the sheltering by the Afghan Taliban, then the rulers of Afghanistan, of al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden, the perpetrators of the horrific 9/11 attacks, the U.S. overthrew the Taliban government using U.S. military, the CIA and local anti-Taliban fighters. So far, so good.

However, the George W. Bush administration began to make mistakes. To fulfill a political goal of touting a new way of fighting—minimal U.S. ground forces combined with local forces and U.S. air power—the administration didn’t insert enough U.S. ground forces into Afghanistan to catch and capture or kill bin Laden. He paid off local Afghan forces and escaped into Pakistan, a longtime friendly area for Islamist militants.

Because Bush then became preoccupied with diverting scarce U.S. intelligence and Special Operations assets to launch a disastrous invasion of Iraq, bin Laden was able to use his sanctuary in Pakistan to hide from the United States for an additional 10 years—when Barack Obama, Bush’s successor, launched a successful raid to kill him 2011.

However, Bush made an even bigger error. To reduce the chances that Afghanistan would harbor terrorists in the future, Bush decided to launch a nation-building war to bring democracy to Afghanistan. A non-Muslim foreign occupation of Afghanistan unsurprisingly led to a resurgence of the Islamist Afghan Taliban, using Pakistan as a sanctuary and gaining popular support in the Pashtun tribal areas of Afghanistan to throw out the foreign infidels.

Pakistan, an ostensible U.S. ally since the Cold War, when the United States unintentionally helped spawn al-Qaeda in the first place by supporting, through Pakistan, radical Islamist Mujahadeen rebels fighting the Soviet non-Muslim occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s. The United States should have learned from the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan—and the British failure three times during the late 1800s and early 1900s to win in that country—that non-Muslim occupiers inflame a potent Islamist pushback.

However, the cry in the U.S. foreign policy circles seemed to be the arrogant, “But those non-Muslim foreigners weren’t the United States.”

Predictably, against the United States, the Afghan Taliban, like their historical antecedents, were able to “protract the war” (as George Washington said about his winning strategy against the much more powerful British forces in the American Revolution). And the Afghan Taliban and their allies took advantage of the sanctuary in Pakistan and the passive, even active support of the Pakistani government, which was playing a “double game” that supported Afghan Taliban forces killing U.S. troops while at the same time raking in billions in U.S. aid.

In 2009, after more than seven years of U.S. failure to subdue Afghanistan, instead of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan, cutting U.S. losses and terminating all aid to Pakistan’s two-faced government, President Obama—throwing a bone to the U.S. military to give them a better chance finally to pull victory out of the fire—foolishly doubled down and escalated the war as his new administration began.

Fast forward through an additional eight years of abject failure to 2017 and see a replay of 2009, as another new president, Donald Trump—who loves to pose as a tough guy and therefore likes advisers with stars on their lapels—begins to go down the escalation path yet again.

But what has been the outcome of this 16-year quagmire in Afghanistan? The nation-building war that Bush, Obama and now Trump continue to wage has destabilized neighboring Pakistan further.

A Pakistani Taliban arose from the Islamist militant stew in western Pakistan, created by the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, and has been challenging the Pakistani government—therefore requiring U.S. military aid to the Pakistani government to combat it. The United States therefore unintentionally helped create the Pakistani Taliban, some of whose members are now operating under the ISIS banner back in Afghanistan and against the Afghan government and U.S. forces. ISIS in Afghanistan is now more ruthless than even the radical Taliban ever was.

After 9/11, instead of getting ensnared in a long-term entanglement on the ground in the Afghan “graveyard of empires,” to remake that country, and instead of getting diverted to an unrelated bog in Iraq, the United States should have used its undivided intelligence, Special Forces, covert action and air combat assets to try to neutralize bin Laden and al-Qaeda much earlier. That mission was eventually accomplished and has been done for some time now.

President Trump is right to cut off aid to Pakistan, but he should also reassess the entire Af-Pak regional picture. It’s time to remember the shining U.S. victory over bin Laden and al-Qaeda in that part of the world, admit defeat in remodeling Afghanistan, and withdraw all American forces before the continuing U.S. military presence inadvertently creates a super ISIS there.

This article was published at InsideSources.com and is reprinted with permission.

(RFE/RL) — Afghan officials say the death toll in a massive suicide car bomb attack in a crowded area in central Kabul has risen to 95, with 158 others wounded.

Baryalai Hilali, the director of the government media center, told reporters that the toll might rise further as some of the wounded brought to hospitals were in “critical condition.”

Kabul deputy police chief Haqnawaz Haqyar said that victims were still being brought in to hospitals across the city.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed that the militant group was behind the attack, one of the biggest blasts to hit the war-torn city in recent years.

According to the Interior Ministry the attacker used an ambulance to pass through checkpoints.

“He passed through the first checkpoint saying he was taking a patient to the [nearby] Jumhuryat hospital and at the second checkpoint he was recognized and blew his explosive-laden car,” Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told the AFP news agency.

The United States and the United Nations have condemned the attack.

“Our thoughts are with the families of the victims who were injured and killed, and we mourn all those who lost their lives in this senseless attack,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.

“The United States stands with the people of Afghanistan, and we remain firmly committed to supporting the Afghan people’s efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity for their country,” Tillerson said.

“The United States stands with the people of Afghanistan, and we remain firmly committed to supporting the Afghan people’s efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity for their country,” he said.

“On behalf of the United Nations in Afghanistan, I unequivocally condemn today’s attack in Kabul city in which scores of civilians were killed or injured,” Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement.

“Today’s attack is nothing short of an atrocity, and those who have organized and enabled it must be brought to justice and held to account,” Yamamoto said.

Eyewitnesses say that buildings hundreds of meters away were shaken by the force of the explosion.

The attack comes a week after an assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in the city that killed at least 25 people.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suicide car bomber targeted security forces in the southern province of Helmand, wounding at least six people on January 27, local officials said.

Provincial government spokesman Omar Zwak said that the suicide bomber tried to enter the Qari Posta security checkpoint in the Nad Ali district.

The attacker was spotted by security forces who opened fire on him, but he still managed to detonate his explosives, Zwak said.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Afghan government forces have struggled to fight the Taliban and other militant groups since U.S. and NATO troops formally ended their combat mission in 2014.

U.S. President Donald Trump has committed to stepping up the U.S. military’s engagement in Afghanistan, pledging thousands more U.S. troops without setting deadlines.

Trump has said he wanted to shift from a time-based approach in Afghanistan to one based on conditions on the ground.

It’s certainly not easy being a leader, let alone the leader of the United States of America, with all of its 325 million plus population, made up of tens of thousands of different enclaves, political viewpoints, religious differences, racial groups, and ethnic blocs.

It is infinitely more difficult to govern a nation such as the United States as opposed to unitary leadership powers such as China or even Russia, since the U.S. Constitution theoretically gives a voice to each and every American of sane mind, coupled with the First Amendment, the power to reach the powers that be, often ending up right on the desk of the President.

So for Donald Trump to have finally reached a consensus, and heroically and mightily struck a balance by and between the most hardcore immigrant-hating right wing groups, and the most ultra leftist open border anarchists, is truly a herculean achievement, and an accomplishment greater than any other president in modern day American history.

No piece of legislation introduced in American enjoys 100% support from the American people, but the final resolution of most, if not all, outstanding immigration legal issues remaining is now not only a necessity, but is truly a National Security issue.

Rabid haters such as leftist House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi angrily declare that Trump is a racist, making such wild eyed and crazy statements that Donald Trump wants to “make America white again,” or when U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez calls Trump a “NAZI” or “KKK Leader.”

Meanwhile hardcore rightwing pundits such as Ann Coulter harshly compare him to liberal left wing hippies, terming his proposed immigration legislation as a “love fest,” while others such as Mark Krikorian of the ultra right wing Center for Immigration Studies threaten Trump that he will be impeached before the 2020 election cycle.

But how can Trump be both?

How can one man be both a racist and a “love fest” hippie?

The fact remains that Donald Trump is a tough, seasoned, and pragmatic New York City businessman, who knows how to weather the proverbial storm, while still getting what he wants done.

This is exactly what the American people want and need, and this is exactly what the country needs at this moment in history.

For too long, weak and lame past presidents have made legislative and policy changes after first sticking their finger in the wind, and implementing change based on who lobbied the hardest, or paid the most money, or who had the most power – with President Donald Trump, he always goes with what is right and correct, based on the consensus and data that’s out there – with deft execution and finality.

This is not the mark of a politician, but rather the mark of a pragmatic New York City business man.

Not only has he promised to protect the humanity and safeguard the interests of more than 800,000 innocent kids who were brought to the United States by their law-breaking parents, but he also expanded this number to include up to 2 million in total who also fall within those categories.

In other words, he gave the “leftists” even MORE than what they asked for.

Then he turned around and placed a total stop-gap on wildly out of control “chain migration” and the veritable “crap shoot” diversity visa lottery program, which have both seriously threatened to undermine the fabric of the American community and its security, giving time for the American people to assimilate and integrate themselves as Americans, newer ones and multi-generational.

This breathing period is important, as it was in ancient Rome, so that Americans no longer exist as “clumps” of haters attacking each other at their throats, but rather settle in and settle down, to “forge a new nation” as the Founding Fathers had previously envisioned.

And while Trump’s detractors curse the “wall” that he wants to build, claiming that its construction is inherently “racist,” how does that explain the fact that the main reason for the wall is to keep out the hundred billion dollar per month drug business (heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, opioid, MDMA, ecstasy, and other narcotics) trafficking trade being funneled in, through America’s southern border?

Can one truly be “racist” against drugs?

Once again, the facts speak loudly for themselves – if anyone can get immigration reform done once and for all, it’s the talented and tough New York City businessman from Queens, New York.

The United States strongly condemned Saturday’s horrific attack in Kabul.

“Our thoughts are with the families of the victims who were injured and killed, and we mourn all those who lost their lives in this senseless attack,” said US Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson in a statement.

According to Tillerson, “the Taliban’s use of an ambulance as a weapon to target civilians represents inhumane disregard for the people of Afghanistan and all those working to bring peace to the country, and is a violation of the most basic international norms.”

Tillerson commended all the emergency services personnel for their courageous actions in responding to this terrorist attack.

“All countries who support peace in Afghanistan have an obligation to take decisive action to stop the Taliban’s campaign of violence. There can be no tolerance for those who support or offer sanctuary to terrorist groups,” Tillerson said, adding that the US stands with the people of Afghanistan, and we remain firmly committed to supporting the Afghan people’s efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity for their country.

The Wafd Party’s higher commission voted on Saturday not to nominate party chairman El-Sayed El-Badawi as a candidate in Egypt’s presidential elections in March.

In a secret ballot 42 of the party’s 45-member commission voted against El-Badawi’s nomination, local media reported. The announcement followed a five-hour meeting in closed session at the party’s Cairo headquarters.

Earlier this week — and two days after the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi submitted his candidacy papers to the National Election Authority — El-Badawi had announced plans to run for election.

At that stage already all the candidates who had previously announced their intention to run, except for the president, had withdrawn their candidacy.

Meanwhile, a leading member of an opposition campaign that had been challenging El-Sisi in the upcoming elections, was attacked outside his home on Saturday in what his lawyer described as a failed kidnap attempt.

Hisham Genena, a former anti-corruption watchdog chief, had been working to elect former military chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Sami Anan, the last challenger seen as a potential threat to the re-election of Sissi.

Anan’s campaign came to an abrupt halt when he was arrested this week and accused of running for office without military permission.

By Yossi Mekelberg*

For almost six decades, Cuba has been an iconic place of courage, stamina and standing up for one’s beliefs while defying a superpower, despite having to endure a punishing US embargo because of this. It might not be the socialist paradise that the leaders of the 1959 revolution promised, but they still built a society with a strong commitment to social justice.

Cuba is a fascinating place, full of contradictions. In all my visits there, including one with my students earlier this month, I have found it difficult not to admire its people’s perseverance in the face of adversity. So many of them live in poverty, but it never hampers their eternal optimism, even happiness, expressed through their music, art, and the endless positivity that they never fail to project.

Yet one would be mistaken to interpret this optimism as satisfaction with their current situation. More and more Cubans are expressing their desire for change. They complain Cuban-style, which is more of a grumble than complaint. They are proud of being Cubans, and would not like others to think ill of their country.

Nevertheless, they long for more opportunities to improve their economic situation and standard of living, and to have more say in the changes that the country is going through. But they do not want to see a reversal of the revolution and what it has achieved for them. This is Cuba’s and the Cubans’ conundrum.

Cuba will witness a momentous event, at least symbolically, this April when 86-year-old President Raul Castro will pass the torch to his Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez. Well, almost. Castro is not in a hurry to relinquish power altogether. Even when he ceases to be president, he will still retain the all-powerful position of general secretary of the Communist Party.

In addition, Castro was selected earlier this week as a candidate for Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power by the Segundo Frente municipality in Santiago de Cuba. Once again the symbolism is clear, as Santiago de Cuba is the cradle of the revolution.
Changes are evident across the island, albeit mainly in the capital Havana. Cubans are demonstrating their entrepreneurial character by starting private businesses, increasingly in partnership with foreign investors. The tourism industry, which is a major source of hard currency, is booming.

But this creates one of the most striking distortions in the Cuban economy, which leads to a tremendous loss of human talent for work in this sector, or in any job that involves contact with foreigners. Cuba runs two currencies in parallel: The CUP, which is the peso that ordinary Cubans use, and the convertible peso, or CUC, used by foreign visitors, which is worth roughly $1.

Since 80 percent of the workforce is employed by the government and earns about the same, many Cubans, including highly educated ones, opt for employment in shops, hotels and restaurants, or as tourist guides, as long as they are paid or tipped in CUCs.
Cuba is a highly educated nation with extremely high levels of literacy. For example, it produces more doctors per capita than any other country. Not only does it send its doctors to work in the developing world, but it trains, free of charge, doctors from those countries most in need of such practitioners.

But as much as the old guard tries to maintain the spirit and values of the revolution, the younger generation of Cubans, though they love the free health system, free education and guaranteed (though modest) housing, nevertheless also longs for Western-style consumerism. Unfortunately, they do not always make the connection between the introduction of free-market capitalism and the high price that is attached to it.

No discussion on the situation in Cuba would be complete without examining its relations with the US. Toward the end of the Obama administration, diplomatic relations were at long last resumed.

Through executive orders, then-President Barack Obama managed to weaken the embargo, although he was unable to end it, as that power is in the hands of the US Congress. But changes were quickly seen, with American tourists flocking to explore the country, and those fabulous vintage cars that at home they could only see in museums.

This development seems to have been brought to a near standstill through President Donald Trump’s recent attempts to reverse his country’s improving relations with the island. During his election campaign, he promised the Cuban community in the US, most of whom live in Florida and are sworn enemies of the Castros, that he would undo Obama’s rapprochement policies.

Already, Cubans who want to travel to the US can no longer apply for visas in Havana. They must travel to Mexico or Columbia to do this, which makes it a very expensive trip and one beyond the means of most. This development has been particularly harmful to the business and academic collaborations that had just started budding.

Cuba has embarked on a journey of change. There is a realization that the current situation is unsustainable. The world in which the Cuban revolution was conceived and born is no more. But there are no easy options. To liberalize the economy too quickly might reverse the island to the state it was in under former President Fulgencio Batista before 1959: Subservient to US business and political interests.

Too slow a change will risk a growing malaise not only among the young, but also among wider segments in society. It remains, therefore, for Cubans to develop a model of change that serves them best, by maintaining the values of the revolution, but without stifling the resourcefulness of the Cuban people that will take them truly into the 21st century.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations at Regent’s University London, where he is head of the International Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media.

A report of two young children with burns of the esophagus caused by swallowed button batteries from “fidget spinners” highlights a risk of severe injuries involving these popular toys, according to a series of reports in the January/February Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (JPGN). Official journal of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) and the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, JPGN is published by Wolters Kluwer.

The reports add to previous safety hazards from fidget spinners, especially in the hands of toddlers and preschoolers. In an accompanying editorial, Drs. Athos Bousvaros and Paul Rufo of Boston Children’s Hospital write, “Having an unlabeled button battery in a toy or product that children can handle and break poses a potential danger to children.”

Swallowed Batteries from Fad Toy Lead to Internal Burns

Fidget spinners are a simple but popular toy, consisting of a plastic piece that easily spins around a central bearing. Fidget spinners are sometimes marketed as anxiety-reducing devices for people with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, although those claims have not been researched.

Amid last year’s fidget spinner fad, reports of young children swallowing fidget spinner parts have appeared. Some but not all fidget spinners have batteries, enabling lights to shine when the toy is spinning. One of the new articles reports on two children–a three-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl–with severe esophageal injuries caused by swallowed lithium batteries from fidget spinners. The lead authors were Dr. Racha Khalaf of Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora, and Dr. Yoseph Gurevich of Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center, New Hyde Park, N.Y.

One child swallowed the central disk cap of a broken fidget spinner, including a small button battery, while the other swallowed a battery released from a damaged disk. When batteries come into contact with body fluids, they can cause severe burns in a short time. In the hospital, both children were found to have deep burns of the esophagus.

One child required emergency endoscopy to remove an impacted piece of the broken toy, including a one-inch button battery. He remained in the hospital for nearly three weeks due to concern about a possible fistula (connection) between the esophagus and aorta–a life-threatening complication that may develop days to weeks after the battery is removed. (The National Capital Poison Center has more information on the devastating injuries caused by swallowed batteries.)

Two other JPGN reports describe injuries in children who swallowed broken fidget spinner parts, but not batteries. In both cases, the objects were removed from the esophagus by emergency endoscopy, following NASPGHAN guidelines for swallowed objects (PDF link). Swallowed fidget spinner discs “should be presumed to contain a button battery until proven otherwise,” Drs. Gurevich and Khalaf and colleagues note.

Button batteries are present in a wide range of household devices, including cameras, watches, and remote controls. While batteries in children’s toys are usually well-secured, this may not be the case in devices not specifically designed for children.

Drs. Bousvaros and Rufo encourage pediatricians to report swallowed button batteries to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has already recognized this along with other potential hazards of fidget spinners. The editorial authors note that NASPGHAN’s advocacy efforts were instrumental in prompting regulatory action in response to swallowing hazards posed by high-powered magnets a few years ago.

Research has revealed the shocking lack of access to essential medicines in India, despite thousands being approved in an attempt to generate wider availability.

Researchers at Newcastle University, UK and in Mumbai, India publishing in the Journal of Global Health, found that policy to open up the market has generated a large number of brands of medicines, but there are still not enough available in the pharmacies.

This study assessed the rational use – those drugs shown to be safe and effective with good evidence – and availability of six essential medicines in 124 private pharmacies in Maharashtra State, India.

In theory, competition within India’s vast market for generic drugs should ensure that essential medicines are available in private retail outlets at a price people can afford. However, the study found that despite there being multiple approved products listed in India databases, few were available in private pharmacies at a price people could afford.

Lead author, Dr Colin Millard from Newcastle University’s Institute of Health and Society said: “What is worrying is that despite efforts to increase availability through market competition there remains inadequate access to essential medicines.

“We found that multiple brands of selected medicines are listed in professional and commercial databases -running into thousands – yet only a small fraction were available in private pharmacies.”

Thousands of medicines approved, yet few available

The researchers examined the drugs available for six common health needs: artemisinin (malaria), lamivudine (HIV/AIDS), rifampicin (TB control), oxytocin (reproductive health), fluoxetine (mental health) and metformin (diabetes). The study found that for each of the medicines there were multiple approved products listed in Indian databases, 2186 in total.

They found that only metformin was easily available- in 91% of the pharmacies studied- followed by rifampicin which was present in just above half the pharmacies (64.5%). The other four medicines were available in less than half.

In addition, the medicines were also available in fixed dose combinations (FDCs), where two or more drugs are combined in a set ratio in a single dose form, usually a tablet or capsule. There are concerns in India over the safety and effectiveness of these products. In 2007, the Indian regulatory body the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) banned 294 FDCs which had been approved by state authorities but had never received central authorisation; in 2012 a further 45 FDCs were withdrawn.

Dr Millard adds: “The high level of approved products available on the Indian market also raises questions about rational medicine use, that is are they being used in unsafe combinations?”

The authors call for a review of available brands, taking into consideration levels of sale and grounds for approval, and the setting up of a centralised database of registered pharmaceutical products.

Your grandmother’s insistence that you receive more bug bites because you’re ‘sweeter’ may not be that far-fetched after all, according to pioneering research from Virginia Tech scientists.

The study, published Jan. 25 in the journal Current Biology, shows that mosquitoes can rapidly learn and remember the smells of hosts and that dopamine is a key mediator of this process. Mosquitoes use this information and incorporate it with other stimuli to develop preferences for a particular vertebrate host species, and, within that population, certain individuals.

However, the study also proved that even if an individual is deemed delicious-smelling, a mosquito’s preference can shift if that person’s smell is associated with an unpleasant sensation. Hosts who swat at mosquitoes or perform other defensive behaviors may be abandoned, no matter how sweet.

Clément Vinauger, an assistant professor of biochemistry in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Chloé Lahondère, a research assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, demonstrated that mosquitoes exhibit a trait known as aversive learning by training female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to associate odors (including human body odors) with unpleasant shocks and vibrations.

Twenty-four hours later, the same mosquitoes were assessed in a Y-maze olfactometer in which they had to fly upwind and choose between the once-preferred human body odor and a control odor. The mosquitoes avoided the human body odor, suggesting that they had been successfully trained.

By taking a multidisciplinary approach and using cutting-edge techniques, including CRISPR gene editing and RNAi, the scientists were also able to identify that dopamine is a key mediator of aversive learning in mosquitoes.

For example, they targeted specific parts of the brain involved in olfactory integration by fitting mosquitoes with helmets that allowed for brain activity recordings and observations. By placing mosquitoes in an insect flight simulator and exposing the mosquitoes to various smells, including human body odors, the scientists observed how the insects, trained or not, reacted. What they saw is that the neural activity in the brain region where olfactory information is processed was modulated by dopamine in such a way that odors were easier to discriminate, and potentially learn, by the mosquitoes.

“Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing exactly what attracts a mosquito to a particular human — individuals are made up of unique molecular cocktails that include combinations of more than 400 chemicals,” said Lahondère. “However, we now know that mosquitoes are able to learn odors emitted by their host and avoid those that were more defensive.”

“Understanding these mechanisms of mosquito learning and preferences may provide new tools for mosquito control,” said Vinauger. “For example, we could target mosquitoes’ ability to learn and either impair it or exploit it to our advantage.”

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are vectors for Zika fever, dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses, and can be found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. Vinauger and Lahondère are both affiliated with the university’s Fralin Life Science Institute, which supports vector-borne disease research as a major thrust area.

By Froilan Gallardo

Three months after Philippine troops drove militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) out of Marawi, rehabilitation of the southern Islamic city is slow because troops are clearing it of unexploded ordnance and homemade bombs, officials said Friday.

It could take two to three years to clear debris from areas destroyed during the five-month battle, while nearly half of Marawi’s 200,000 residents remain in evacuation sites or with relatives, said Eduardo del Rosario, who heads a civilian-military task force on rehabilitation. Total rehabilitation is expected to take nearly four years.

While more than 500 shelters have been set up to allow evacuees to return to their neighborhoods, ground zero remains off limits because troops are conducting massive recovery of unexploded ammunition or ordnance.

“This was where the heavy fighting between the government and the ISIS-Maute members happened. It covers an area of about 250 hectares (617 acres) with 24 villages and 11,000 families,” del Rosario said, using another name for IS.

“We’re trying to recover the bombs, including improvised explosive devices that were laid by the ISIS as booby traps,” he said. “So, if we allow them back in at this time, there is a huge possibility that they become victims of explosions.”

The military, he said, expected ordnance-clearing operations to be over by the first week of April.

Fighting erupted in May 2017 when members of an IS Filipino cell led by Isnilon Hapilon and supported by fighters from the local Maute gang tried to take over Marawi.

After five months of fighting, the military announced in October that it had killed Hapilon and his top lieutenants, including a Malaysian militant.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared the siege over and the final casualty count reached 1,200, the majority of whom were militants. Nearly 200 other militants are being sought and the government has not lifted military rule covering the southern Mindanao region.

Waivers

All residents are to be given one week to visit the area to check on their homes and buildings or to get appliances and personal items that could be recovered.

“Remember, the buildings and homes were 90 percent to 100 percent destroyed,” del Rosario said. “The total debris estimate alone was about 3 million tons. So just to clear the debris, that will take two to three years.”

Private developers being contracted by the government had promised that in about a year, basic facilities such as water, power and telecommunications would be restored, he said. Total rehabilitation could be complete by the end of 2021.

Those entering the area would be asked to sign a waiver, because the government would not be responsible in case “something could happen that would danger their lives,” he added.

A 500-pound bomb, for example, has a potential kill radius of at least 1.3 km (0.8 miles), del Rosario noted.

Addressing growing concerns of the local Muslim ulamas that a continued delay on the rehabilitation of Marawi could lead to radicalization in evacuation camps, del Rosario said he was conducting consultations with religious leaders.

“There are speculations, skepticism why they are not being allowed back,” he acknowledged.

Former Iranian defense minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced that the state-of-the-art stealth fighter jet “Qaher (Conqueror)”, which has been designed and manufactured by domestic experts, is undergoing pre-flight tests and conducting fast taxi runs.

Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Brigadier general Dehqan pointed to the development process of Qaher and said the fighter jet has been designed to conduct close air support missions.

It has been undergoing pre-flight tests, he said, adding that one of the tests the aircraft should undergo is fast taxiing.

Taxiing is the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or push-back where the aircraft is moved by a tug.

The former defense minister went on to say that the Qaher fighter jet is currently conducting fast taxi runs.

He also pointed to the development of another homegrown jet, dubbed Kowsar-88, saying that it is also performing fast taxi runs, preparing for take-off.

The Iranian fighter jet Qaher-313 was unveiled in February 2013. The single-seat stealth fighter jet can take off and land on short runways.

Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere.

Tehran has always assured other nations that its military might poses no threat to the regional countries, saying that the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine is entirely based on deterrence.

By Lisa Ferdinando

The regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un remains a danger to the world, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said Friday in Honolulu, while emphasizing diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

The goal remains the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Mattis told reporters at U.S. Pacific Command’s headquarters at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, with South Korea Minister of Defense Song Young-moo.

“The Kim regime is a threat to the entire world,” Mattis said. “It’s an international problem that requires an international solution.”

He noted three unanimous United Nations Security Council Resolutions on North Korea.

“Our response to this threat remains diplomacy led, backed up with military options available to ensure that our diplomats are understood to be speaking from a position of strength,” the secretary explained.

U.S.-South Korea ‘Ironclad and Irreplaceable’ Alliance

Mattis and Song reaffirmed the strength of their countries’ alliance and America’s pledge to defend South Korea and maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.S.-South Korean alliance is “ironclad and irreplaceable,” Mattis said.

“Our combined militaries stand shoulder-to-shoulder ready to defend against any attack” on South Korea or the United States, he said.

Mattis praised South Korea’s “steadfast action upholding United Nations sanctions at sea,” noting South Korea has impounded two ships that were found violating the U.N. Resolutions using ship-to-ship transfer at cargo at sea.

South Korea “leads by example in carrying out the United Nations’ sanctions,” Mattis said, adding North Korea is reminded that “risking its economy to boost its rockets makes it less secure, not more.”

Enduring Pacific Power

Mattis said Song is always welcome at the Pacific Command headquarters in Honolulu. This was the last stop of the secretary’s trip that also took him to Indonesia and Vietnam.

“Here in beautiful Hawaii we’re reminded that America is an enduring Pacific power — five of our states plus territories all touch on this shared ocean,” he said.

Reckless Rhetoric, Dangerous Provocations

Mattis said the United States and South Korea welcome the Olympic Games talks between North Korea and South Korea, but at the same time, “remain steadfast with the international economic pressure campaign to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.”

The talks for the Olympics, Mattis explained, do not address the overarching problems with North Korea.

“Diplomacy should repose reason on Kim’s reckless rhetoric and dangerous provocations,” he said.

North Korea is sending athletes, including hockey players for a unified South Korea-North Korea team, to the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea. The games begin Feb. 9.

The Indonesian military should deter abuses by its personnel and hold human rights violators accountable, Human Rights Watch said in a letter made public today to the new Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) commander, Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo named Tjahjanto, the former air force chief, to the position on January 18.

Tjahjanto should immediately ban so-called virginity tests, which are obligatory for female applicants to the Indonesian armed forces. Virginity testing is a form of gender-based violence and has been widely discredited, including by the World Health Organization.

“Indonesian women who seek to serve their country by joining the military shouldn’t have to subject themselves to an abusive and discriminatory ‘virginity test,’” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The Indonesian military cannot effectively protect all Indonesians, women and men, so long as a mindset of discrimination permeates their ranks.”

As armed forces commander, Tjahjanto should also publicly support President Jokowi’s lifting of access and reporting restrictions on foreign media in Papua and ensure that all military personnel in Papua fully respect media freedom.

Tjahjanto should also ensure prompt, transparent, and impartial investigations of abuses – including torture and unlawful killings – in which military personnel are implicated, and take appropriate action against personnel responsible.

Tjahjanto should also fully cooperate with government efforts toward investigating the mass killings of 1965-66, in which 500,000 to one million suspected communists and others were killed. He should make a commitment to release any relevant TNI documents about the killings and halt any intimidation efforts by military personnel of those seeking accountability. Military cooperation is crucial to determining responsibility for these atrocities and to provide justice and redress for the victims and their families.

Tjahjanto should also pledge to reform the military tribunal system to allow civilian courts to prosecute military personnel implicated in rights abuses against civilians. The 2004 Armed Forces Law placed the military courts under the supervision of Indonesia’s Supreme Court but the military controls the composition, organization, procedure, and administration of the military courts.

During the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Indonesia’s human rights record in 2007, 2012, and 2017, the Indonesian government made a commitment to reform the military tribunal system. The promised reforms included adding to the military criminal code the crimes of torture, and other acts of violence. However, the government has yet to add those offenses to the military criminal code.

“Marshal Tjahjanto should publicly support legal reforms to empower civilian courts to try soldiers implicated in rights abuses,” Adams said. “It’s a crucial step for holding Indonesia’s military accountable.”

By Courtney Grogan

Interreligious leaders from across Canada came together Thursday to sign a statement urging the national government to respect their freedom of conscience by changing controversial new requirements to qualify for federal funding of youth summer jobs.

“The changes to the Canada Summer Jobs guidelines and application not only violate the fundamental freedoms of faith-based organizations, they also significantly impact the broader communities served by their programs, often the most vulnerable in Canadian Society,” reads the interreligious statement signed Jan. 25 by 87 religious leaders, organizations, and institutions.

Signatories included representatives of the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches, as well as the Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim communities of Canada.

Federal funding requirements for the Canada Summer Jobs program were added Dec. 19, 2017 stipulating that “both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada,” including “reproductive rights,” or the right to abortion access.

“An organization that has the explicit purpose of restricting women’s rights by removing rights to abortion and the rights of women to control their own bodies is not in line with where we are as a government, and quite frankly, where we are as a society,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he discussed the Canada Summer Jobs program Jan. 10.

Trudeau continued, “Women have fought for generations for the right to control their own bodies, to be able to choose for themselves what to do with their bodies … There are organizations that couch themselves in freedom of speech and freedom of conscience … when those beliefs lead to actions aimed to restrict a women’s right on what to do with her body, that’s where we draw the line.”

Diverse religious leaders came together in Toronto the afternoon of Jan. 25 and released the following statement:

“We … call on the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada to amend the Canada Summer Jobs guidelines and application process so that it does not compel agreement or belief, and allows religious organization to stay true to their communal identity and beliefs. The new application requires each organization to give non-negotiable and unqualified affirmation of certain beliefs held by the government.”

Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto was among the speakers at the statement’s release.

“Many organizations will be deemed ineligible because they are unable to or unwilling to attest that their core mandate and beliefs align with the current government’s self-identified values. These groups, though their views and actions are accepted by law and by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are being denied access to a government benefit solely because of their religious beliefs or conscientious objection,” said Cardinal Collins.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops originally raised objections to changes in the federal funding requirements for the Canada Summer Jobs program in a Jan. 11 statement.

In response, the Canadian government issued “supplementary information” Jan. 23 about what situations would warrant a denial of funds. This clarification of the new policy emphasizes a distinction between the activities and the beliefs of an organization when the government determines who will receive funding.

The statement also includes five example of how eligibility is determined, with a hypothetical “faith-based organization with anti-abortion beliefs” among its examples.

“Example 1: An organization whose primary activities are focused on removing, or actively undermining existing women’s reproductive rights, applies for funding. This organization would not be eligible to apply,” begins the list.

The next example differentiates a situation in which “a faith-based organization with anti-abortion beliefs applies for funding to hire students to serve meals to the homeless. The organization provides numerous programs in support of their community. The students would be responsible for meal planning, buying groceries, serving meals, etc. This organization would be eligible to apply,” according to the Employment and Social Development department of Canada.

However, a summer camp that “does not welcome LGBTQ2 young people” would not be eligible to apply for funding to hire students as camp counselors, while “a faith-based organization that embraces a traditional definition of marriage” could hire students for the primary purpose of assisting the elderly “regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,” according to other examples.

The examples thus hinge on whether the core mandate, which is defined as the “the primary activities undertaken by the organization,” respect the “established individual human rights of Canada,” rather than the beliefs or values of the organization.

Father Raymond de Souza, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston, commented on this distinction saying, “It is embarrassing that the employment minister seems unaware a basic element of political liberty, freedom of expression and religious liberty is that the state does not determine what the “core mandate” of a citizen is,” in an opinion piece at the National Post.

Patty Hajdu, the Canadian Minister of Employment, Workforce, and Labour, wrote on Twitter Jan. 23 that “Canadians expect us to defend their hard-won rights. Canada Summer Jobs funding will no longer support activities that seek to remove individual rights, like a woman’s right to choose or LGBTQ2 rights.”

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops told CNA Jan. 24 that they remain “seriously concerned that the beliefs and practices of Catholics and other faith traditions will exclude them from receiving funding through the Canada Summer Jobs Program.”

“The attestation and examples still amount to the government’s coercion on matters of conscience and religious belief. They foreclose the possibility of wide ranging views and even healthy disagreement,” the bishops explained.

“In the Archdiocese of Toronto alone, we know that at least 150 summer jobs will be impacted by the new application requirements,” Cardinal Collins said at the interreligious press conference.